Chapter 11 - THE BLUE ROOM
The Blue Room was Isabella's private office in our old townhouse.
I had kept it locked after her death.
Not because it held secrets.
Because it held her.
Her books.
Her perfume.
A coffee stain on the desk I could never bring myself to remove.
Ruby had never been inside.
I opened it at midnight.
Marco searched first.
Nothing obvious.
Then Ruby noticed a loose blue tile near the fireplace.
Children see what grieving adults stop seeing.
Behind it was a narrow metal box.
Inside:
A flash drive.
A handwritten ledger.
And a letter addressed to me.
Salvatore,
If I am wrong, burn this and forgive me.
If I am right, protect Ruby from anyone who tries to define her body for profit.
I had to sit down.
Isabella knew.
Not everything.
Enough.
The flash drive contained meetings she secretly recorded with Raymond.
In one, he threatened to expose Bellandi political payments if she stopped the medical-foundation transfers.
In another, Lucinda's voice appeared.
She sounded younger.
But unmistakable.
"If Salvatore ever finds out, he'll destroy us."
Raymond laughed.
"Then marry him before he does."
I stopped the recording.
Eight years ago.
Lucinda's relationship with me had not been accidental.
She had been positioned long before we became engaged.
Then the final file opened.
A photograph of Isabella in a hospital bed the week before her death.
Raymond stood beside her.
On the back, Isabella had written:
HE KEEPS ASKING ABOUT MY MEDICATION.
My wife had died of a sudden aneurysm three days later.
May you like
For the first time in eight years, I asked a question I had been too broken to ask before.
Was Isabella's death natural?
